Alberta is pushing back hard on the Carney Liberals' latest immigration move, calling it “reckless” and unsustainable as Ottawa opens the door to 10,000 new parent and grandparent sponsorship applications this summer — without consulting the provinces tasked with handling the fallout.

“Alberta’s government is deeply concerned,” said Minister of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration Joseph Schow in a July 22 statement. “This latest move will only serve to further increase the unsustainable pressures on our hospitals, schools and housing markets.”

Schow pointed to the staggering number of newcomers in 2024 — nearly two million, mostly temporary residents — as a clear sign the Liberal government has lost control of immigration policy. “The federal government cannot continue to make unilateral decisions that ignore the realities on the ground,” he said.

The province is urging the federal government to reduce immigration to under 500,000 people per year and give provinces more say in setting immigration targets.

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And it’s not just Alberta raising red flags.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner is also demanding answers, saying the Liberals “broke the consensus for immigration in Canada” by flooding the country with temporary workers and international students without matching increases in housing, health care or employment.

The Liberals need to explain how the levels they've set for the Parents and Grandparents Program will impact Canada's already severely strained housing supply and health care system.

There will potentially be millions of people in Canada on expired visas soon. A decade of utter Liberal mismanagement of the immigration system impacts everyone in Canada, but also families seeking to immigrate while playing by the rules.

Under the expanded family reunification stream, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will issue a total of 20,500 invitations in 2025 to sponsors who submitted their interest back in 2020.

But neither Alberta nor Rempel is buying the “family reunification” talking points from the Liberals, saying that adding tens of thousands of seniors — many of whom will immediately require health-care support — to a broken system is neither compassionate nor responsible.

“While we respect the importance of family reunification,” said Schow, “inviting large numbers of parents and grandparents into the country without proper coordination with provinces places disproportionate strain on already busy health systems.”

Meanwhile, Alberta continues to advocate for sustainable immigration aligned with provincial realities, not virtue-signalling policies from the Prime Minister’s Office that crash into the ground at the ER doors.